2 Church Workers Headed To Prison In Sex Assault

Two men convicted of using their leadership positions in a Zion church and church school to seduce a 15-year-old girl were sentenced to four years in prison Friday.

Neil Taylor, 35, and James Kerr, 41, also were ordered by Lake County Judge Barbara Gilleran Johnson to serve 24 months probation following prison.

"I could not tell this community with a straight face that this is a case that does not call for the penitentiary," Johnson said before issuing the sentence.

Kerr and Taylor were members of Lake County Baptist Church. Both held various leadership positions there, authorities said. Some of the sexual abuse took place at Lake County Baptist Church in Zion and the nearby Christian Catholic Church.

Neither man had any prior criminal history, but Johnson said prison was necessary to deter others from committing similar crimes. She added that despite the men's assertion that their relationships with the girl were consensual, the sexual abuse caused devastating latent psychological damage to the girl.

Both men are married and have children of their own and were sexually involved with the girl at the same time, though neither was aware of the other's relationship.

The victim, who is now 17, testified at the sentencing hearing that she loved both men and did not want them to go to prison.

In arguing for a prison term, Lake County Assistant State's Atty. Christopher Stride noted that both men had known the girl since she was a child.

Kerr knew the victim since she was born.

The relationships began when she approached Kerr and Taylor for comfort and counseling amidst a turbulent home life and her parents' tumultuous divorce.

Kerr and Taylor were arrested last October, after an anonymous call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, who notified Lake County.

But months before their arrest, the victim's parents found love letters to her written by both men, authorities said.